Poltergeist
by Serpent Tailed Angel
Summary: When the council executes him, Jellal is ready to make ammends and pass on, until he finds he can affect the living world, at which point he decides to help Erza however he can. If she never notices that's okay, but if she does, well, fingers crossed.
1. A Negligible Mistake

"A gas leak?"

"That's right. We're sorry for the inconvenience, but we need you to come with us. Everyone on this floor is being taken to be checked out. Oddly enough, there are people out there who won't be pleased with us if any of you die."

"Inconvenience?" Ignoring the last comment, Jellal laughed, a warm smile the likes of which man as deranged as to disturb the dead should not be able to produce spreading across his face. "This is the first time in eight days I've had a chance to leave my room. I wouldn't care if you said someone had put arsenic in my breakfast," which might have made it more edible, "any excuse for a change of scenery."

The guard, Nico, grimaced, both at their most dangerous prisoner's cheerful compliance and at the popping sound the kid's shoulder made when he stretched. That Jellal offered up his wrists to be handcuffed without even being asked didn't help. Nico felt so guilty for how he was treating this certainly guilty man that he could only mutter a numb "this way" once all the proper security precautions were in place.

It would have been better if Jellal acted like a crazed maniac, or was always so happy-disturbed. But no, Jellal had to be agreeable, polite, and as appalled by the crimes of all the men in prison (himself included) as anyone else would be. If there hadn't been so many witnesses, Jellal might have been found innocent on good behavior alone.

Damn him.

Jellal wasn't complaining at all. Even now, as the guard stopped at every cell in his hallway while there was a supposedly toxic gas hanging in the air. Not a peep from the most dangerous person in the prison. No, it was the disgruntled man four doors down, locked up for having offed his rival in love, who demanded an explanation and a faster pace.

"The warden's been wanting the pipes to get some maintenance work for a while, but money's tight right now, and it wasn't in the budget. We actually had some big shot from the Council come by the other day and declare the place up to code without even checking, so there's no money grant coming. Or there wouldn't be, if this hadn't happened." The guard said as he put the standardized magic restraining handcuffs on inmate number five. "Figures this would happen right after. Even if they accuse us of setting this up, the pipes will still need replacing. We've already contacted them." He paused to unlock door number six. "Anyway, there's no hurry. If we left you down here a few days we might see some lasting damage, but you'll all be out in a few minutes, and we'll take you to the medical wing. They'll give you some drug or another while we air out this place."

"But what does the gas do?" The woman who drowned her own daughter asked, a nervous edge in her voice. Worried about her own life. No wonder Jellal seemed like such a good person. Everything is relative.

Nico bit back a noise of disgust and said "for as much as you'll inhale, it shouldn't do anything worse than make you nauseous. It's only a small leak. There isn't much gas to infiltrate your system."

This appeared to satisfy her, but if it didn't, Nico didn't care. If any other prisoners had questions they could just ask the growing crowd.

Finally, when he cleared the hall, Nico took the scumbags up to the medical wing. Still high-security, just like everything else in the prison, but as Jellal had said, just a change in scenery was nice. Jellal and the rest of the prisoners that shared a hallway with him were herded into a line behind all the other men from his floor. After moving only three feet in ten minutes, Jellal was beginning to see how the prison guards, or janitors, or whoever drew the short stick, would have time to clear the gas from the floor.

After what he was pretty sure was half a day, Jellal could finally see into the room where the line ended. The nurses there, large, muscular nurses, because the prison left nothing to chance, were running a quick check on each prisoner. Regardless of whether or not they demonstrated any of the symptoms in question, they would receive a shot. Their rooms having been apparently cleaned up two hours earlier, guards were on standby to escort prisoners back to their cells when the check was completed. Jellal felt perfectly fine himself, but that looked to be irrelevant. He could suffer the checkup, he supposed. He'd hate to seem difficult, especially since his cooperation just might have been the only thing saving him from a noose.

When it was finally Jellal's turn he, unsurprisingly, showed no signs of having been affected by the gas, but was told that, like everyone else, he'd need a shot. A shot for what? How did a shot fend off gas? Who knew. The nurse just mumbled something about needing to open a new box of… whatever it was when he asked what the point of the shot was.

The injection went into his arm, and a guard came to take him back to his large stone box as Jellal rubbed the sore spot.

Down two flights of stairs, to the right, and around two corners turning left, Jellal was almost back to his room when he noticed his hands going numb. He opened his mouth tell the guard, but the noise that came out was slurred-incoherent. He stopped in his tracks. _Had_ they cleared the gas out? Maybe he was just inhaling it for the first time now.

When his guard turned and told him to keep walking, he tried to ask, but this time he could produce no noise at all. He tried to gesture to his throat to explain this, but his arms wouldn't budge. Instead, his legs gave out beneath him. As he hit the floor, the world grew dark.


	2. Verdict

**Luka-nee** - Uwah! Hearing that from _you_ just made my day! But... ah... now I feel pressured to do really well... *gulp*

**Lord Naruto** - 'Possbily' dead? I mentioned that he dies in the summary, right? Ah, sorry to say though, the full explanation won't come for a while. That's just how it turned out when I was plotting this.

**Aulizia** - Personally I think there are plenty, but there coud stand to be more, right?

* * *

><p><em>I wonder if they'll still expect people to show up for my trial tomorrow<em>.

It was odd, but that's what Jellal found himself thinking as he stood over his body. Would they still proclaim him guilty? It seemed like wasted funding to continue his trial now, but he would like the closure.

Closure?

Shit. He was dead. Jellal's breath, or imitation of breath, grew short as this sank in.

Now what? What could possibly come now? He couldn't do anything as a ghost. There'd be no chance of getting to rejoin the outside world, no more pleasant conversations with the guards or the more lucid prisoners, no more waiting for Erza to visit.

His throat tightened. Erza. He'd gotten a letter from her only two days earlier saying she was going to come see him. Would she be sad to learn that he'd died? He didn't know if he wanted that or not.

Maybe they could resuscitate him! It was known to happen.

He followed the guard as his body was carried out of the hall, up to the floor he'd just been on, and… past the medical wing… to a makeshift morgue. No! It hadn't been that long. They could still try to revive him, couldn't they?

But they wouldn't, Jellal realized. Why waste time saving a man who would probably end up on death row anyway? He swallowed, almost fascinated enough by the lack of feeling in his throat to forget his predicament. So this was it?

What did he do now? Wait to be pulled into the light? Yeah right. If there was a god up there, Jellal didn't have enough brownie points with him to get out of limbo, ever. Would he just fade away eventually? Be dragged down to hell?

…

Well, until something happened to him, he may as well find something happening elsewhere. If no guards, spells, or five foot thick walls were stopping his spirit, then he ought to be free to leave.

The prison wasn't too far from Era-by carriage. There were no vehicles for ghosts, though, and if Jellal could still fly, he didn't know how. On foot, it was a half day trek. The one upside to being dead that Jellal could find was that he didn't feel tired. He felt nothing, actually, which was starting to get on his nerves.

It was almost noon, he believed, when he'd died, and twilight when he passed through the wall into the Council meeting hall, now empty. A vague twitch in the back of his brain said he'd been here many times, and he took his seat at what he was certain had once been his spot.

He stayed there for the night, distracting himself from his boredom and unease by studying the room in detail, trying to find differences between it and the one that had been destroyed during his attempt to raise the dead. Some part of him insisted to go to the courtroom and wait to see what became of his trial, but by now the Council had to know he was dead. They discuss a course of action here, the part of his brain that seems to still be aware of how pre-amnesia functions worked told him, and then they _might_ go to the courtroom.

By morning Jellal was certain that he could shut his eyes and describe to somebody every last inch of the Council meeting hall. Fat lot of good it would do him. There was no one to talk to.

The councilors took their sweet time arriving, which Jellal supposed was fair. He'd been told he was none too punctual himself. He knew all of them, if only as the imposing faces that stared down at him during his possibly no longer ongoing trial. Out of habit he got up from his seat, standing awkwardly for a moment before remembering he was invisible, and sitting on the table.

The new Council consisted almost entirely of strangers, that is, most of them had done nothing to indicate they had known Jellal prior to his arrest. He could name Org, and he'd had to learn Gran Doma, but after that he could only refer to them in vague, descriptive terms. There was pencil head, eyepatch, and the guy with too much hair.

It took a few minutes for them to get settled in, then their discussion began. Unsurprisingly, he was the first topic of debate. The old lady began by saying "we received word from O'Connor." The warden. "Jellal passed away yesterday, the exact time is unconfirmed. He'll be buried tomorrow." Jellal took a deep breath and tried not to think about how that was the day of Erza's promised visit.

"Good." Pencil head said. "I was worried he might get cold feet. Have you responded yet?"

"No."

"When you do, joke about people thinking he sabotaged the pipes to get the grant money. If that accusation is on his mind, we won't have to worry about him spreading the story around." The guy with too much hair ordered.

Jellal frowned. What were they…

"We won't announce this for now." Org said with a sigh. "This trial was dragging on because people liked him. As it stands, we're in no better a place than O'Connor when it comes to people crying foul."

"That would be the price of foul play." Scarred face said.

"Enough. " Gran Doma ordered. "Jellal is deceased. The prison will receive the money for its renovations, and the information is to remain confidential. Now we have more pressing matter of…"

Wherever it was, Jellal didn't hear it. In spite of feeling nothing, he felt his mouth go dry. That gas leak had been a hoax. That would explain what prison even had a useless gas to leak out. They'd staged the whole thing, just to kill him, to make it look like an accident. Just because they got sick of waiting for him to be found guilty.

Feeling especially numb, Jellal got up from the table, not caring when he knocked over a stack of papers. Mind reeling from the discovery, he passed silently through the wall, ignoring that eyepatch jumped up to reorganize papers that should not have fallen. To shocked to notice where he was going, he wandered the building aimlessly, eventually finding himself in the courtroom.

Standing at the podium, just as he would have been for his trial that day, had he not died, Jellal waited. He waited for the councilors and media to filter in. Waited for his trial to resume. Waited for someone to actually declare him guilty. Actually deserving of death.

* * *

><p>Jellal's trial never came, nor did he ever hear how his termination was excused. In two weeks he only left the courtroom once, and that was to attend his funeral. He regretted that. There had been no mourners, no previously absent family trying to make peace with him in whatever particular issue they had with him and his actions, only the warden-the man who'd traded Jellal's life for chance to put a few touch ups on the prison-and his gravedigger were there. That might have had something to do with the fact that his death was top-secret, but still.<p>

Once he'd gotten over that his name on the grave marker had been misspelled, Jellal returned to the courtroom and resumed his wait. The Council couldn't put his trial off forever, could they? Eventually, they'd have to find him guilty while he wasn't present.

But apparently, they _could_ put it off forever. By the end of those two weeks his trial still didn't come, though he ended up listening in on plenty of other's. Most were to prosecute low ranking members of dark guilds, most of which Jellal had never heard of, a few that he had heard of but didn't know it, and two he recognized, Chimera Fang and Grimoire Heart. Nine times out of ten their crime was just being part of the guild. If you could be sentenced to five years in prison for taking perfectly ethical jobs, albeit from an unethical source, then it was no wonder his execution come so easy.

Killed for a crime he couldn't even remember. Something told him that was par for the course in his life.

He still hadn't been pulled into the light, or anyplace less savory, but Jellal figured that he could only spend so much more time on earth. After all, the place didn't exactly seem to be overflowing with spirits. With no idea how the rules of being a ghost worked, for all he knew, he was only moments away from proofing out of existence, and by that point he was beyond caring. He'd been executed for a crime he couldn't remember, and could count on one hand the people who cared, or would care, if they knew, and he'd failed to obey Erza after all the trouble he caused her. He figured he deserved whatever punishment was coming his way.

That being said, he did want some closure. He decided to pay the Council one last visit, just in case this trial was mentioned, then he'd see Erza, then he'd wait at his grave until he finally passed on.

* * *

><p>"…changes everything." Org was saying as Jellal walked through the wall into the Council hall. "Now how do we handle the Jellal situation?"<p>

In spite of having just gone through the worst month of his life… er… sort of, Jellal couldn't help but grin. They _were_ discussing him. And here he'd been telling himself he was proving to himself that they weren't.

"We handle it exactly as we have." Eyepatch said. "We keep Jellal's 'condition' quiet until we have a good chance to break the news, and mentioned nothing of the Grimoire Heart member's confesion."

Gran Doma nodded his agreal. "It was… a mistake to handle Jellal as we did, but it was only a negligible mistake. The fact remains that he did commit those crimes with his own two hands, and even if we were to release this new information to the people they would not believe it. Most would think it's a hoax, or a setup created by Jellal himself. They would still see Jellal as guilty." Wait… what? "There's nothing to be done about it now. We can't raise the dead, particularly him. The best we can do is prevent further damage."

So they're covering it up a bit longer. Jellal shook away any suspicions he had of what exactly they might be talking about, feeling he was probably better off not knowing. They regretted killing him? Good. Why? Something in his gut said to just back away before he found the answer to that one.

Slipping out of the room, Jellal searched for a way downstairs. He was certain that if he could walk through walls he could also go through the floor. He just wasn't certain how. He could probably jump from the third story window, but a little voice in his head that wasn't quite up to date warned that that may be lethal.

As he passed through the lounge on his way out of the building, a voice from the reception desk caught his attention.

"I don't care what the policy is," a woman was saying "I'm demanding to know why his security was changed to forbid visitors."

Jellal glanced over his shoulder to see Erza glaring down the poor lady on duty behind the desk. Time for item two to be checked off of his list.

* * *

><p><strong>STA<strong>: Okay, so for medical reasons that actually probably _aren't_ carpal tunnel after all, I won't usually update so fast. I was just super happy to see how many hits this story got. Usually it takes a while for my stories to get any attention, which might have something to do with the fact that my most recent bunch have been one of those 'sucked into another world' and a fic for Rave Master, which never got the following it deserved so I didn't expect the fanfic to get many readers either. Anywho, I'm glad so many people looked at my story-or at least that a couple people looked at it so many times :)

Oh, and also I was orignially gonna have Ultear arrested, but I just decided no. She was going to get a seven year sentence to make Jellal think life was that much more unfair, but I felt that was pushing it.


	3. Boundary of Life and Death

**Luka-nee** - Ah, really? I always have a lot of trouble keeping characters... in character. Jellal is especially hard since you don't see enough of him, and he's got a different personality each time.

**Aulizia** - I thought it might be a little mean, but I couldn't help it :P

**Lord Naruto** - Fair enough.

**HeartGold12** - Yes ma'am... sir... reviewer.

* * *

><p>She was every bit as gorgeous as he remembered. Oh, how he wished to hold her, tell her how much it meant to him that she was trying to see him, tell her anything. Just to reach out and touch her...<p>

Placing a hand on her shoulder, Jellal allowed himself a moment to fantasize about still being alive, free, with her. He moved his hand as if to brush loose strands of hair from her gorgeous shoulder and...

Erza jumped, hand shooting up to her shoulder, eyes darting to her right, trying to identify the source of movement. After a few seconds, when she found nothing, she returned her attention towards the receptionist.

Jellal frown at this behavior. As a ghost, he should pass through her the same way he went through walls. Running a hand through her chest and praying she wouldn't feel confirmed this. Yet when he placed a hand on her cheek, and really thought of it as himself putting his hand on her cheek, her hand moved up, passing through his to rub the area where she was, for some reason, feeling pressure.

Stepping back and letting her resume her argument without further disturbances, Jellal scanned the room for something to run a quick test on. A mug of steaming coffee across the room caught his attention, and he went over and lifted it from the table, earning an annoyed look from a man in a nearby chair, but getting no other reaction. Just another randomly floating object in the magic government building. Nothing to see here. Jellal found this somehow disappointing.

The yelp of surprise instead came when Jellal tipped the mug and slowly poured the coffee onto the floor. He tried to tap into his magic and prevent the coffee from falling and… nothing. Yet when he stuck his vaguely translucent hand under the liquid and tried to catch it, it pooled in his palm, drops slipping between his fingers. So if he tried to be solid he could be, but if he wanted the coffee to just pass through his hand-

Jellal jumped as the mug clattered to the floor. Wrong hand. Could he only be completely tangible or intangible, or did he just need to practice?

Well, no matter. Even if no one could see him, he could still affect the living world, and that was something he could live wi-er… deal with.

Returning to Erza's side, Jellal ran through the possibilities for this in his head. He could still communicate with Erza this way! Sure, his life had been snuffed out, but this new discovery had rekindled all his fantasies. He only needed to explain what had happened to her and then-

"I demand to see him _right now_." Erza all but screamed, not caring about how childish she must have sounded. "Let me see Jellal, dammit!"

"Ma'am, don't make me call security." The receptionist threatened.

Erza turned and stormed from the room. Jellal followed, smacking into the door as she slammed it behind her and taking a moment to remind himself to be intangible, then passing through.

Outside, Erza was walking away from the building towards what she had determined to be the least crowded street. Jellal rushed to catch up to her and felt a tug in his chest when he did, the first thing he felt in weeks, seeing her crying softly. Her shoulders barely trembled as she struggled to control herself in public.

"Erza…" Jellal moaned, reaching out to her again, but pulling his hand back at the last second. He'd startled her in the lounge. Besides, if she was trying so hard to get hold of herself, she probably wouldn't want him to see this. Should he leave? If he'd known the way to Fairy Tail he no longer remembered it. How would he find her?

He intended to stay with her. Being able to affect the living world changed everything. Screw finding peace and getting closure! He was going to spend his afterlife doing whatever he could to help the scarlet haired goddess that had given him the will to live.

So how did he handle this? Give her some privacy? Risk not being able to help her?

"Jellal…" Erza whispered.

Jellal swallowed, starting to form a response, then remembering that it would be pointless to do so.

"… I want to see you again…" She hiccupped "why did you…"

Why did he… what? Die? Let himself get arrested? Commit a crime in the first place? Kill Simon? Oh dear, he'd really screwed up, hadn't he?

Well, he'd hold off contact with her. She might like to know he was there, but she'd probably prefer that he be alive than present. At least, he hoped she'd want him to be alive. If she was this distraught just with the thought of him being in high security… No. He couldn't possibly break the news to her.

A small part of Jellal's brain screamed in protest at this idea. How could he live out…ah… _play_ out his fantasy of actually _being_ with Erza if she didn't even know he was there?

"I don't care." Jellal hissed, not even pretending he wasn't lying to himself. Grumbling, he jammed his hands into his pockets-he seemed to be stuck in the outfit he died in, and he'd long ago gotten over being sick of the prison uniform-and looked back at Erza. Gorgeous, gentle, strong, kind, and, yes, bodacious Erza. He considered himself mature enough to care more for the first four qualities, but he was young enough that the last didn't go unnoticed either. Yeah, he wanted her, but that wasn't happening. Not if he was dead.

Then again. He'd gotten her to care for him once. He ought to be able to do it again, probably even without the knowledge of how he'd first accomplished it. He could still reach out and touch her. Pencil and paper would be all he'd need to communicate. He loved her, of that much he was certain. And sometimes…

Sometimes love is strong enough to cross the boundary of life and death.

He just had to make her love _him_ that much.

* * *

><p><strong>STA<strong>: Yay! New chapter of Fairy Tail. Personally, I'm super disapointed. Not that I have anything against Wendy, just... what a cop out.

Oh, since it was never brought up in story, and never will be, here's a list of everyone involved in Jellal's death:  
>The council. They planned it.<br>The warden. He agreed to it and broke the pipe (which really just carried air)  
>The nurses. To be explained.<br>Evan, the guard who led Jellal back. He was the only guard let in on it and instructed to wait for Jellal and take him away when he collapsed.  
>The grave digger. Someone had to dig the grave.<p>

All parties involved, sans the first two, were paid off to keep quiet about it. Evan was reassigned to Nico's hall so no one would notice Jellal was missing.

Yeah. Aaaanywaaaay, I finally fisnished the outline for this story (which was like, 6 pages without including the posted chapters) and I'm actually a little afraid of how some of it will be recieved, particularly the ending, but unless I suddenly make a darastic change this will probably be around 15 chapters.


	4. Ten Point Landing

Okay, so I've mostly been writing this fanfic with a speech program, which is why most of my (non-punctuation) errors are words that sound similar instead of typos. While working on the next chapter the Dragon software _really_ misheard me. I thought I'd save out the best example.

Oh, and this is just a little out of context so… um… it's not what it sounds like. I assure you.

I said: in fact Erza probably wouldn't have gone that far with Gray had she not been half drunk.  
>It heard: infectors are probably wouldn't have gone that far with great kitchen epitaph junk.<p>

Yeah… not sure where all of that came from.

**Beta5200 **- Thanks. I spent a lot of time trying to figure out how exactly I wanted his ability to work.

**Yuki Kusanagi** - Ah, well I guess I didn't play it up too much if it wasn't cheesy.

**Luka-nee** - I was going for funny... but I guess cute works too...

* * *

><p>"No luck, huh?" Lucy swapped out her pleasant grin for a consoling one as Erza walked in looking positively dejected. "I heard his trial was stalled. The Council's probably just having a little trouble involving him, and playing it safe. Whatever the reason, they'll probably allow visitors once the trial resumes."<p>

"Yeah..."

Lucy sighed and grabbed Erza's hand, leading her to the table where their team was sitting. "At least you can send him letters, right? Even if they wouldn't let you see him, you two can communicate."

"But I wanted to see him…" Erza mumbled. How would Lucy feel if Natsu went away forever? Or were they just friends? She had trouble telling.

"Well…" Lucy took a seat beside Gray "…you'll get to see him soon enough. You've managed eight years before, haven't you? What's a couple extra weeks?"

"Cheer up." Gray added, correctly guessing what happened. "We'll find a nice long job and by the time that were done with it the public be able to visit him again."

"Yeah… yeah!" Erza forced a grin "Work. If nothing else, that'll take my mind off of him."

Natsu charged off to pick a job that suited his tastes, while Gray rushed after him to make sure that everyone else could tolerate it. While they were gone, Lucy took a chance to scoot over closer to Erza and whisper "It's fine. If he's got high-security then he's fine too. Lonely, maybe, but otherwise perfectly fine." The word fine took on an extra meaning as an image of Jellal flashed through Lucy's mind, but she quickly shoved the thought away. "You _let_ the counselor arrest him, so I doubt they suspect you're trying to bust him out. Just submit a written request to see him."

"I'll do that."

"In the meantime…" Lucy glanced over her shoulder as the boys rushed back.

"You hold them off. I'll go write that letter and pack for the job."

Lucy nodded. As Erza ran off, she moved intercept the two. Not a difficult task, since they were quarreling over whatever argument began only five paces from their destination, and it had effectively kept him from reaching either of the girls. It seemed Natsu wasn't too pleased with the job Gray had picked.

It really looked like a serious fight. An errant ball of ice struck Gajeel in the back of the head, causing a thick metal rod to launch Natsu into Elfman, causing a table to barely miss the hothead's head and instead take out Bisca, causing her definitely-not-boyfriend to pull out a pair of guns and rapid fire in the general direction of the white-haired giant, causing the entire guild to fall apart.

* * *

><p>"You'll like this one." Gray said as he nursed a rather large bruise on his rather exposed torso. God only knew were his shirt had gone. It didn't escape Lucy's notice that he was speaking only to Erza, which she supposed was fair. If Titania had turned such a notable portion of <em>her<em> body purple she'd try kissing up too.

Erza grunted, still not pleased to have returned to the guild only to find it in complete disarray. Much furniture was in need of being replaced, but there were no other signs of the fierce battle that had ended only minutes ago. Everyone had been quick to cease-and-desist once Erza had made her displeasure known. As one of the main causes of the brawl, Gray would not be forgiven easily.

"You liked that play, didn't you?" Actually, if the sudden light in Erza's eyes was anything to go by, Gray may have already been forgiven. "It's not exactly the same, but there's less potential to screw up, and this woman's paying more. Plus, she has yet to prove herself to be a slave driver."

"The job with Fredrick and Yanderica was selected because it had _no_ potential for you to screw up." Lucy muttered, leaning over to inspect the request form on the table in front of Gray. It was for a dance studio, wanting the exact same thing Rabian had first requested: special effects. The effects they needed all fell under Gray's jurisdiction-which might explain why he picked it-but the client claimed to be willing to try anything new, so long as it was within reason. It actually didn't look like a job that Erza could have any role in.

"I guess it's worth a shot." Split evenly between the four of them (counting Happy, not Erza) the pay would be 35,000J, and surely property damage would be a harder accomplishment if the boys really were limited to special effects.

"We'll just have to keep Erza off the stage." Happy joked. Lucy tried not to cringe at the look of innocent confusion on the redheads face.

"I don't know…" Gray said thoughtfully. An image of her performance during Fantasia passing through his mind, he added "She might make for pretty cute dancer."

At the sight of Erza's blush, an easy smile graced his lips. The sort of smile they meant nothing, except possibly 'yes, I'm off the hook' but would make Juvia's blood-and the rest of her-boil with jealousy.

* * *

><p>Dancing wasn't quite Erza thing, in spite of whatever Gray thought. She could do it, sure, but in no way did it tie into secret dreams. Well… maybe in a musical… No! Focus on the job. Plan the career as a big star later.<p>

Not that she had much work to do, Erza thought glumly. Natsu and Gray were having all the fun, working the _real_ special effects. Even Loke was helping, which Lucy thought counted as enough of a contribution from her. Though she'd also been suckered into helping with costumes. After having been told that her magic was not practical for the performance Erza had wanted that job as well, but just because sewing needles and swords were both sharp didn't mean she could handle both.

Instead Erza had been given the job 'costume judge' which let her voice her opinion and have no influence. Her only other job was to pull several release cords at the end of the performance, dropping what she suspected to be several pounds worth of glitter onto the stage. The only bright side she could think of on the subject of her current employment was that she wasn't the janitor.

Gray would die for this.

The dancers knew all the stops by heart, this was just the dress rehearsals. This was the performers getting used to their outfits, and Gray, Loke, and Natsu getting used to their cues. Given three days to work on their timing, the hours flew by… for the boys. Erza was nearly ready to shoot herself when the actual performance finally rolled around.

Oh, it looks gorgeous. The choreographer was a genius. The dancing was perfect, the stagecraft was perfect, the outfits were perfect, even _Natsu_ was perfect. From her perch on the catwalk, though, Erza could only watch from the most obscure angle. Worse. Seat. Ever.

Erza stood there, waiting for her cue while thinking of all the ways Gray would pay for saddling her with such a lousy assignment. Any minute now, she'd have to start dropping glitter, then she could dye Gray's hair a nice Natsu shade of pink. Soon, real soon. As soon as the star finished her bow.

She gripped one of the polls suspending the catwalk and leaned forward for a better view. The lack of actual rails on the catwalk hadn't concerned her, because what idiot would just fall off?

Any second now… There! That was her cue!

Erza catapulted back and raced towards the first bag of glitter, only for the heel of her boot to catch on the cheap metal floor. Ankle twisting, she stumbled, and before she knew it there is no floor beneath her.

Seriously?

For a moment that was all she could think of as gravity took hold, then her arm jerked and she stopped falling.

She stared numbly the scene before her. The toe of her boot was still on the catwalk, but that wasn't holding her up. Outstretched, her arm was held by, well, she didn't know what. She could feel pressure on it, as if it were being squeezed, and could even see slight indents where the skin was pressed, but felt nothing _physically_ against her skin. Some small part of her brain said she felt the same sensation recently, but the rest screamed not to focus on that and worry more about not breaking her neck.

The force, whatever it was, yanked her up. Once she had both feet back on the catwalk the pressure on her arm lessened and the sensation appeared on her back as well, as if making sure she was steady, then vanished completely.

Erza glanced around, checking for someone else on the catwalk who could have rescued her with magic, before looking below to see if a dancer had saved her. But professional as ever, they hadn't even looked up to wonder where their grand finale effects were.

* * *

><p>Jellal sighed in relief, feeling a light twinge of resentment as Erza's gaze passed right through him, searching for her savior. Damn. Even without armor, she was <em>heavy<em>. What kind of diet was she on, or should she be on? She had to be tucking in her gut.

That, or being in prison had caused a bit of atrophy.

… nah. His goddess was just made of lead.

* * *

><p><strong>STA<strong>: Wow. I remembered that director lunatics name. Yay for me!

I'm a little bummed with how this weeks chapter of FT ended. I kind of wanted someone else to win for a change.


	5. Séance

**Yuro-Faita911** - Yay!

**Beta5200** - :)

**Aulizia **- I tried really hard to get all of them so notice here, because the longer I write this the more likely Natsu and Lucy are to fall into the background. Gray's really the only one improtant to the plot (aside from, you know, Erza) so I have to try hard to get the rest of the team in.

**Luka-nee** - I think it's a rule that all girls must have at least _one_ physical flaw, but I can't see any blatant ones on Erza so I really like to think of her as heavy. Oh, and I'll take cute's fine. I've had someone claim a moment intended to be funny was really sad, and I'll take cute over that any day. I was just trying for funny.

* * *

><p>"This had better washout."<p>

Erza blinked. What was Gray talking about? Why had he come to the girls' dorm at ten at night, demanding to see her? She'd already been sleeping. He'd pay for making Levy wake her.

Wait… pay?

Oh, right. She'd bleached his hair when he got knocked out in the guild brawl earlier that evening. Juvia hadn't allowed her to dye it pink afterward.

"… It won't." She tried not to cringe at the look he gave her when she said this. Not really hateful but… the sort of irritated that promised similar vengeance, if not identical. He probably wouldn't go that far with _her_, in fact, Erza probably wouldn't have gone that far with Gray had she not been half drunk. That whole business with the mysterious pressure had left her just a little on edge, and she'd figured one drink couldn't hurt. Or three.

"It won't." Gray repeated.

"It won't." Erza reaffirmed.

"All right, come with me." Gray ordered.

"In the morning." Erza replied, moving to shut the door.

Gray stuck his foot in the way and insisted "now."

Realizing she wouldn't be getting back to bed anytime soon no matter what Erza sighed and asked "where do you want me to go?"

"Mira's. I need her to teach me a spell to make it look black until this grows out. I look like Lyon. It's creeping me out."

"I don't think she'd be too pleased if you wake her up. I wasn't." The last two words were tacked on menacingly, with a threatening glare thrown in for good measure. Gray swallowed nervously.

Then again, handling all of Fairy Tail's records had given Mira a very broad knowledge on the subject of magic. She may know something about that strange pressure.

* * *

><p>Jellal got up and followed Erza and Gray away from the girls' dorm. There wasn't necessarily anything preventing him from going inside, except maybe guilt. He'd caused Erza enough trouble as it was without secretly watching her shower.<p>

Though he felt like he ought to, he couldn't quite recall who Mira was, and it wasn't like he could ask. He was mildly surprised, when they finally reached the girl's house, to find that it was the white haired waitress who seemed to do more managing of the guild than the guildmaster.

"It's really la-" the girl frozen the doorway, inspecting Gray with the one eye that she hadn't been rubbing sleep from. "Let's get that taken care of before Natsu sees you."

Gray murmured a thank you and stepped past Mira into the house. Erza glanced over her shoulder and followed. Jellal was halfway through the door when Mira tried to shut it, knocking him back a step but not far enough for the door to actually close. He gaped at her while she tried to figure out what was wrong with her door. She looked so… how could she possibly muster that much force?

Nevermind. It's Fairy Tail. Just move on.

Successfully shutting the door, Mira led Gray into her bathroom while Erza (and Jellal) waited in her living room. They returned several minutes later, Gray with black hair and Mira with an empty box of hair coloring.

"I can find a nice shade of red for you if Gray tries to get revenge." Mira offered to Erza. Not the Gray would ever get chance to. No one was messing with that gorgeous scarlet on Jellal's watch.

"Aha ha… Thanks." Erza forced a smile, then changed topics. "Mira, I've been having a sort of weird magic problem. If it's not too late, could you maybe…"

"Were both awake." Mira told her, a genuine smile gracing her face. "It's nothing too serious, right?"

"I don't think so. It hasn't even been going on for a week yet, the first time it happened was when I went to Era. I felt this really weird pressure, but I didn't think much of it. Then yesterday, while we were on the job, I felt it again, when it grabbed my arm and stopped me from falling off the catwalk. I asked around afterword, but no one had any idea that I'd even come that close to falling."

Mira looked down, chin resting in her hand as she thought about this. "What did it look like?"

"And why didn't I hear about this?" Gray added.

"Well… I knew it couldn't have been you." Erza excused. "It didn't really look like anything, let alone ice. There was nothing there, really. I didn't even detect any magic, though I think that's probably just because I was panicked during that time."

Gray frowned. "Responsible or not, I'd still like to know when you nearly break your neck." Unseen by him, Jellal nodded in agreement.

Sparing Erza from having to come up with an excuse, Mira said "I can't think of any spell like that. This… pressure? It grabbed your arm?"

"Yes. It felt like someone had reached their hand out and grabbed me, except I couldn't feel an actual hand."

Mira thought about it a moment longer, then said "I guess it could be a poltergeist, but I doubt it."

"A what?" Gray asked.

"A ghost. One that can still affect the world of the living. I can't imagine one saving anybody, though. I can't remember the exact details why, but they're usually convicts." Mira explained.

Before either Gray or Erza could respond to this, a giddy grin spread across Mira's face. "We should try a séance! I have an ouija board!" And without waiting for a response she ran off to get it.

Gray and Erza exchanged glances, conveying the same doubtful feeling as Jellal was. Though he didn't know for sure that they were doubting the necessity of the board rather than its effectiveness. Why should he have to drag somebody's hand over a bunch of dumb letters? He had nice handwriting. If the girl wanted to communicate with him that badly she should hand him a pen.

Or maybe she just really wanted an excuse to use the board. It seemed likely, if that stupid smile on her face as she came back with anything to go by. While she set the board down and explained how it worked, Jellal went off to search for far more sensible tool for communication.

He returned with pencil and paper in time to see Mira remove her hand. Disappointed, she said "maybe it would work if Erza tried it…"

"I'm not sure I-" Erza stopped, completely forgetting the rest of her sentence as Jellal lifted the board up and set it aside on a nearby shelf.

Laying the paper down on the floor, Jellal wrote: _I'm sorry to have unnerved you._

"Use the board." Mira ordered, ignoring that Gray and Erza do nothing but gape.

Sighing, Jellal pulled the board back down and moved the dial to the word 'no' before setting it back on the shelf. Before Mira could object, he wrote: _I was only trying to help you. If this bothers you, I can go. I'd hate to cause you any trouble. But if you'd allow it, I'd like to offer you whatever aid I can._

Finding her voice, Erza asked "I couldn't really _stop_ you, could I?"

_Not that I'm aware of._ Jellal admitted._ However, if you don't want me around I can leave._ In spite of writing that, Jellal had to admit to himself that he probably wouldn't. He'd still feel the need to somehow be with her, even if it were just hanging around the guild from time to time to hear news about her.

"I think you should let him, Erza." Mira said, leaning over to add and in a just a little bit too loud whisper "I think he likes you."

"We don't know it's a he." Erza deadpanned.

_I'm a guy._ Jellal hastily assured her.

"I can't see anything wrong with it." Gray added slowly. Grudgingly. "He has saved you before. If someone were to abduct you-" which he sincerely doubted could happen "-then he could maybe… say… knock them out and rescue you, and there wouldn't be a thing they could do to stop them. The guy's offering to be your guardian angel."

"Or my stalker." Erza added, thinking of Mira's comment.

Jellal cringed. He honestly hadn't thought of it that way. Wanting to amend this quickly, he wrote: _I can limit my aid to guild affairs if you'd like. I can wait in the Guildhall, and only follow you on missions._

With a sigh, Erza said "I suppose that's all right."

_Thank you._ Jellal wrote, as an anonymous ghost, that was about as good as he was going to get. At least none of them had asked who-

"So who are you anyway?" Mira asked. "You do have a name, don't you?"

_I do_.

A moment of silence.

"You're determined to just stay Erza secret admirer, aren't you?" Mira teased. "Well, the three of you had better get going. It's almost midnight."

"I object not knowing the name of-" Erza started.

"Time for bed." Mira stated more forcefully. "We have this all wrapped up. Gray got his hair dyed black. Erza got a guardian angel, and Angel-san gets to be with his crush. You do like Erza, don't you, Angel-san?"

* * *

><p>Erza waited a few minutes after Gray left before heading back herself, letting Mira whisper to her that this situation wasn't bad at all until she'd settle down enough to believe she could fall back asleep. She was fairly certain the spirit ment no real harm, but the stranger's presence still made her uneasy.<p>

As she stood up to leave, the ouija board caught her eye, the dial now point to the word 'yes.'

* * *

><p><strong>STA<strong>: I finished this chatper way ahead of schedule, but then I had trouble uploading it

Anywho, Angel-san. I don't know why, but I really wanted Erza to scoff at the idea of Jellal being her guardian angel while still blatantly referencing the idea, so his nickname for the story is Angel-san. I even trained Saphira (my name for the crummy writing program) to recognize it and add the little hyphen and the suffix. I'll have to train it to recognize kun and chan later...

I'm posting this one before reading the new chapter, because I'm going to be on a plane tomorrow and required to make nice with relatives for the next two-ish weeks. And I won't have my laptop. No new chapters then, put I'll be writing them out in my notebook so I can type them up quick when I get back.


	6. Guardian Angel

**Beta5200 **- Thank you!

**cindy - **'Tis hard to force information out of someone you can neither see nor phisically stop. Jellal in general is hard to keep in character, since his character changes a lot.

**Yuro-Faita911 **- It's not really possible, since they have different faces (and Lyon's doesn't look as nice) but I thought it would make for a good complaint.

**Luka-nee **- Alright. That time I was shooting for cute.

**Yuki Kusanagi** - Oh, that's a relief. I kind of have a thing for angels, so I liked the name, but I was worried no one else would.

* * *

><p>The idea that there was a ghost watching her every move in the guild would not leave Erza's mind. To give the paranoia credit, the nagging feeling of being watched had corrected her posture, and even gotten her to eat her cake slowly. She didn't want to look like a glutton in front of Angel-san.<p>

Not that she knew why she cared if she looked like a glutton or not. She blamed Mira.

She was also considering blaming her behavior on Gray, who had probably been watching her more closely than Angel-san for the past week, hoping to see the ghost move something else around. In fact, he was watching her right then, slowly chewing her cake. Even Lucy, who had not been let in on the secret, had realized something was going on, and was staring. Only Natsu-thank God for Natsu-was oblivious, in spite of Happy suggesting that he was missing something.

"…like it would take that long." Natsu was saying. "And the pay is high. The only jobs that were rewarding higher are S-class."

Looking away from Erza to inspect the job, Gray added "the only monsters more dangerous than those are ranked as S-class as well."

"So? We've done a S-class quest before." Natsu argued.

"Without permission." Erza added darkly, before remembering that Angel-san might be looking and hastily banishing the tone. "How many are there?"

"Just eight."

Lucy did a spit take and looked at Natsu. "Eight? Small armies run away from one! You want us to fight eight?"

"It seems safe enough." Erza said. "Most small armies don't have magic, after all. If it looks like too much we can pick them off one by one." The job description made them out to be water monsters way inland. How hard could that be?

"Exactly!" The Natsu had no intent to follow that plan. "Besides, what could go wrong?"

"Well…" Gray and Lucy both started.

* * *

><p>Erza ducked, rolling out of the way as the Selkie charged. The situation was perfectly ridiculous. She was in the middle of the woods, separated from the rest of the group, about to be killed by a seal-woman.<p>

Though she was too busy trying to stay out of the creature's range without putting any weight on her leg, which had been torn by one of her own swords when the creature had first attacked her, having taken her by surprise in its human form, Jellal, who was in no immediate danger himself (and never would be again) was able to see why Natsu had mistaken this for such a harmless job. Not that it made him any less inclined than Erza to curse the flame brained moron.

The Selkie was too large for him to stop barehanded, and the only weapon sturdy enough not to break was firmly gripped in Erza's hands. She wasn't about to lose another sword to the monsters.

Really, for as much as they would both like to have blamed Natsu for the incident, it was Erza's fault. Though Erza chose to blame 'Angel-san' when she later calmed down enough to think about this. On Gray's insistence the group had spent some time in the last town the Selkie had passed through, learning what they could before coming up with a battle plan.

It was a pretty simple plan. Tried and true, they'd spent the past two days separating one Selkie from the group and taking it down. They gotten rid of three when the Selkie caught on and grew cautious, before trying the same method as a counterattack.

In their seal forms the monsters were unnaturally large. Their human forms were vague, their appearances changing drastically each time. With high intelligence thrown in, Erza could see where the creatures were fought in group, but she could also see that the claim that a small army was used on them had been an exaggeration. There were too big, too strong, for the average man to handle, though he may manage if he were desperate enough, and their ever-changing appearance made it easy for them to trick others, as Erza had demonstrated.

Half an hour earlier she and Lucy had been setting up camp while Gray and Natsu searched the surrounding area. In spite of what common sense warned, Erza strayed out of sight while gathering firewood, and encountered a small child.

The Selkie had only shown themselves thus far as mature women. The sort of mature that would give Erza a run for her money. She suspected nothing when the little girl cried about the scary monsters that had grabbed her mommy. Part of Erza's mind pointed out that, for all the trouble the Selkie had caused, they had yet to take a life in cold blood. They were mostly wanted for wonton destruction, which made it a little odd that _they_ were stopping them, and for having cause 'strange behavior in men'.

Personally, Erza suspected that punishment for the second one would have fallen on the men's shoulders at the Selkie been human women instead.

A smaller but much louder part of Erza's mind shouted "Angel-san is watching. If he sees you save her mom all by yourself you realize you don't need his help. You can spare the dead guy's feelings without having to let him follow you."

But when she followed little girl to a secluded section of woods and summoned a sword, the small child could snatch the weapon away and attacked her. Yes. She could definitely see why these things weren't taken on alone. And dammit, why wasn't Angel-san helping?

The monster charged at her again, moving ridiculously fast over the land with flippers. With no time to dodge more elegantly, she tried to hurriedly stepped to the side, and ended up going down on her injured leg.

The Selkie rammed into her, sending her flying a few feet before colliding with what, to her, felt like not so thin air.

Jellal grunted as Erza hit him, knocking him over. Not that it hurt, nothing did, but even though padding her fall was exactly what he'd intended to do, the impact still took him by surprise.

Erza, realizing exactly what she was lying on, hastily rolled off and onto her feet. She reached down to pick up her sword, then spotted it lying at least three yards away. How had it flown so far?

Jellal followed her gaze, as did the Selkie, and all three raced for the blade. Erza stumbled awkwardly, not even making it halfway there before collapsing to her knees, bloody oozing out the open wound on her right leg as she hastily tried to temporarily cover the wound. The Selkie reached it first, guarding it with its large body as it began to shift back into a woman. Oblivious to his presence, it did nothing to stop Jellal from walking right through it.

The pained scream, sounding perfectly half human, drew Erza's attention back towards the Selkie. Her sword had managed to find its way into the furry, white, and humanly thin neck of the Selkie.

"Took you long enough." She heard herself say. No! She didn't want Angel-san to think she was relying on him!

The words _You could have helped_ appeared in the dirt.

Okay. Maybe giving the weapon to the invincible, invisible guy who could still walk straight wasn't a bad idea… unless you considered that she didn't trust him. Besides, she had no way of knowing for sure that he was there.

"Maybe you should wear gloves." Erza suggested. "If you're going to be helping me, I need to know if you're here to help."

Made sense. That hadn't really occurred to Jellal, having grown accustomed in the past month to people being blissfully unaware of his presence. Before he could write a response, another Selkie burst through the trees, and from the sounds of barking the remaining three weren't far off.

Erza swore and forced herself back to her feet. If she gave Angel-san a bigger sword…? No, she didn't know how much he could handle. He probably could take out the rest of the Selkie (out of the corner of her eye she could see him retrieving the sword he'd left in the first monster), but she doubted he could accomplish that while protecting her as well.

And Jellal had no intentions of trying. Once he dislodged the blade, he ran for Erza, dragging her away too fast for her injured leg to keep up. She found her appreciation for his rescue dwindling as she stumbled through the woods, pulled along by an invisible force.

Then again, he was going no faster than the Selkie that barreled after them.

With her bad leg, Jellal didn't dare try to get Erza to outmaneuver the monsters. The decision he soon cursed himself for, as they ran up to a cliff.

Not letting go of Erza, Jellal spun to face the Selkie. Maybe… hopefully… if he could distract them, would they run through him and over the edge? No. They were too smart for that. Heck, rocks were too smart for that. Maybe a boar… Focus!

While Jellal struggled to think of something, Erza peered over the edge of the cliff. It was too high. No different from jumping out a third story window. Besides, Angel-san was a ghost. Couldn't ghosts fly?

Jellal was glad no one could hear him scream, because the noise that escaped his throat when Erza threw both of them over the edge was beyond girly. Not for the first time, he wished he could use his magic rather than have some worthless ability like being able to write in the dirt. With little time to act, he spun Erza around so he could again break her fall.

The landing left Erza winded, and she lay there stunned for a moment before realizing that in the future she should confirm that Angel-san had powers before relying on them.

The landing left Jellal gasping in pain, though it faded so fast that he realized the sensation had been a figment of his imagination. Something he thought he felt only because he expected it so much.

The temptation to jump from a higher point appeared, but Jellal forced it back and examined Erza. She seemed fine. Shaken, but fine. Very fine. Man, did he ever wish he weren't dead. And from the sounds of it the Selkie had left.

Erza tried to stand, wincing and clutching her leg. That didn't look good. The sun had almost set, but there was enough light for her to read as Jellal carved into the dirt: _where are the others?_

She grimaced. "I followed that thing at least fifteen minutes from camp, and you didn't pick the best direction to run away from them." Jellal had chosen the only open direction, but chose not to point this out. "And then there's the cliff. For the time being, it would be better to wait and see if they find us."

* * *

><p><strong>STA<strong>: The new chapter is driving me crazy. What did the cats find?

Anyway, sorry about posting nothing last week. I ended up completely failing to write anything because I found these awesome _Knight and Rogue_ books and fell so completely in love with Michael Sevenson that I reread the darn things twice during vacation. Hardly saw my family at all! Incidentally, they get chased by a boar in the first book. I totally recommend it! The book, not the getting chased.

Really! Read it! It rocks! The plot is kind of average but everyone I know who's read it has just fallen in love with the characters, and they're wonderful characters. Especially Michael (sigh). Read it! 'Tis a very good book!


	7. Simon

I'm sorry. I gave up on getting Simon in character. Trying to make Jellal act believable in this stupid scenario was already too hard. I should have just cut the whole stupid chapter.

**Yuki Kusanagi** - Nope, and he didn't have magic in chapter 2 either.

**Liux** - Actually, I hadn't noticed that people were saying that a lot. There will be, for the record, no possession

**Beta5200 **- Nope. Thanks.

* * *

><p>Because that was how things went, it didn't take long to start raining. At Erza's request, though with some hesitance, Jellal went off and found a shelter to help her into. The way she pursed her lips when he helped, the way she wouldn't look at him-or where she thought he was-when she spoke, made for pretty good indicators that she didn't want his aid. So why was she asking? Was the issue him, or simply having to ask? Both?<p>

Something told him she wouldn't answer that question. For the sake of his own sanity, Jellal decided to let it go for the time being. The woman who chewed him out in front of Nirvana would have no problem telling him to leave if she hated his presence enough.

As it was, she had no problems forcing her opinion of the almost comically small 'cave' he had found for her.

_I didn't have much time to look, the storm was starting to get worse._ Jellal wrote in the mud, letting his hand become intangible so that the brown goo would fall off while Erza hurried to read his words before they washed away._ I also didn't want to go too far. At least until it's treated, you should stay off your leg. Not to mention those Selkie could have come back while I was gone._

"I can take care of myself just fine." Erza insisted.

_You did a wonderful job_. It didn't matter, Jellal thought bitterly, that the words were erased in seconds. Erza still had a chance to read them. Even without using his voice, he managed to speak without thinking.

To his surprise, Erza chuckled at this. "I suppose you're right. I still could've handled it if that first beast hadn't take me by surprise"

To his even greater surprise, when he started to write a response she reached out from her small shelter and caught his hand. "I don't have gloves with me." She began. "Maybe you could hold onto something until we get back."

Out of habit Jellal nodded, and picked up a nearby stick.

"Thanks. I hate to ask you to leave again-" her voice was a mixture of both false and genuine sincerity "-but since we may be here while, can you get me one last thing? There's a plant that grows in this area called Wortweed. Do you know about it?"

Jellal wrote a confirmation on the mud. He couldn't tell somebody his birthday, but he could rattle off the names of plants. His memory was weird like that.

"It's a common ingredient in disinfectants. I couldn't make any serious medicine out of it, but it should still be of some use on its own. I don't want this injury to get too serious. Could you find me some?"

_Now?_

"The sooner the better." Erza shrugged.

As Jellal left to search, he saw her gathering rainwater in her hands to wash the cut. Was this some sort of strict, over prepared quirk, or something she'd learned from experience Then again, field knowledge was probably a good thing to know. Either way, it probably wouldn't have killed her to have learned that duckroot, not wortweed, was used in disinfectants.

* * *

><p>Since duckroot grew in damp places, Jellal had assumed it would be easy to find. It had not occurred to him that everything was damp half an hour into a thunderstorm.<p>

He ended up going further into the woods then he'd intended before he finally managed to find the thin, yellow tipped grass growing near a small pond. As it looked nothing like wortweed, he decided it would probably be a better idea to mix it into a good fine pulp before handing it over.

He stood, plant in hand, intending to collect rain water the same way Erza had-hell if he was going to mix the disinfecting herb with the questionably clean pond water-to find an unnaturally large man standing right in front of him.

Jellal looked up at the man's face. Their eyes met. He looked back, trying to follow the man's intense gaze to something on the ground.

"I'm looking at you." The man assured him.

Jellal looked back at the man, inspecting him thoroughly. He wasn't just tall-Elfman tall, he was broad, with large muscles shamelessly exposed, as the only thing covering his torso was a sash going over his left side. His hair, though mostly covered, seemed to be black, and he was missing an eye. His voice had been deep, and surprisingly clear for somebody with a metal jaw. It was an overall intimidating image, not helped in the least by voice the back of Jellal's mind screaming_ you know this_, as well as the single word_ run_ over and over.

"… Psychic?" Jellal guessed. Whoever this man was… what the heck was he doing out in the woods?

The man scowled.

"Necromancer?" That would be kind of cool.

Not in the mood for a guessing game, the man reached back and passed his hand to a nearby tree.

"Oh. Sorry, this is the first time I've actually ran into another ghost."

"Not really." The man told him. "I put quite an effort into haunting you for a few months."

"Uh…huh." A moment of silence. "Well… nice to meet you…" Actually, it was really nice to genuinely talk to someone. Jellal had half forgotten what his voice sounded like. "Um… I need to go."

Willing himself to be _very_ solid, he walked through the man back in the direction he'd left Erza.

"Erza can wait five more minutes." The man said, freezing Jellal in his tracks. "Though I'm glad to see you care. Not that you deserve it, but that means a lot her."

Slowly turning back to face the man, Jellal asked "have we met before?"

The question was ignored. "You do know what you doing, don't you? You're dead, Jellal. Dead. You had someone inject a lethal poison directly into your bloodstream. No one lives through that."

Oh. So _that's_ what killed him. He decided not to dwell on it. "I'm dead? Somehow I failed to notice that." Whatever this man had to say, Jellal didn't care to hear it. He started walking again.

Following after Jellal, the man continued. "Erza, in case you didn't notice this either, is still alive. I don't know what exactly you're trying to accomplish with your whole 'guardian angel' stunt but just because-dammit Jellal, I'm Simon!** Simon**! We knew each other as kids, and _you may not have noticed_ but you killed me. It wouldn't _kill_ you to listen to me."

Again, Jellal froze. Simon? Crap! He did remember Erza saying he killed a comrade name Simon. Taking a shaky breath, Jellal did with the little voice in the back of his mind had been urging him to do: he bolted.

He only made it several feet before everything went dark. It was cloudy, sure, so there was no moon light, but this was too much. It should_ not_ have been that dark. He stopped again.

The darkness faded shortly after, and Simon was in front of him again. "I was sent here to talk to you, so listen."

Jellal nodded reluctantly, though couldn't help but ask "how did you do that? I can't get my magic to work."

"Of course you can't. Your magic was sealed when they killed you, that's why you can still move things around in the physical world. The effects of my magic can't be seen by anybody who's still alive." Simon explained none too patiently. "As a security measure the seal on an inmate's magic is _supposed_ to be broken before death, though you and anybody who has a sudden heart attack are exceptions, which is good, since the dead_ aren't supposed to interact with the living_.

"Now I'm going to ask you, for your sake, and mostly for Erza's, to move on."

How should he respond to that? Thankfully, Jellal didn't have to figure that one out. Erza's voice mixed with several others, reached his ears. "I… I need to make sure she's not in trouble." He muttered, hurrying off.

Simon didn't follow.

* * *

><p>"It doesn't look too bad…" Erza try not to wince as Gray felt around her wound. "I don't think anything is broken, but you were still lucky to have escaped with this." He paused. "Or did Angel-san help you?"<p>

"Angel-san?" Natsu asked, ignoring his job on lookout for more of the Selkie to stare questioningly at Erza. He was the one who'd tracked her down, he'd earned the right.

"No one." Gray snapped. He'd forgotten about Natsu enhanced hearing. If the others found out Erza would kill-

"A poltergeist." Erza explained patiently. "We don't know where he came from, but he seems intent on helping me. I hate to admit it, but if he hadn't been there I probably wouldn't be here now. I sent him to look for something for my wound. I don't know if he's back yet."

Lucy opened her mouth to say something about this, but couldn't quite come up with anything to say. After a moment's hesitation, she offered to wait a few minutes for Angel-san while Gray and Natsu carried Erza back to camp.

When Jellal got back to the small alcove where he left Erza to find her blonde teammate there instead, calling out for him with the ridiculous nickname Mira had gotten him stuck with, he figured it was as good sign as any.

* * *

><p><strong>STA<strong>: Okay, Mr. Mashima. I will except your epic battle conclusion cop out. If for no other reason than because this was one big cop out as well. God, this chapter looked so much easier when it was a paragraph summary in a dollar store notebook. I'm never trusting my outlines again.

Ugh. I start college on Monday.


	8. Like The Scottish Curse

**Yuki Kusanagi** - As of right now, I have no plans of killing off anybody else.

**Beta5200 **- My experience is that cute and young adult male don't usually mix well, as far as the male is concerned.

* * *

><p>Though she'd worried it might be rude, Erza had brought a flashlight into the theater with her. The small light would probably be less disruptive than her speaking, and she and Angel-san both would need it to see what one another wrote. Or could Angel-san see in the dark? She filed that away as one more thing to ask him about, right under flight, possession, and his name.<p>

Okay… Today would be a normal day. She's just going to see a play. Something she did scarcely enough that it probably counted as a date… with a dead guy… whose name she didn't know. But Makarov had forbidden her from taking interesting jobs until her leg had healed, and Mira had hinted, none too subtly, that it would be a good idea to try and get to know Angel-san. Who knew, maybe if Erza spent some time with him he'd open up to her. Give a name.

Jellal had thought purchasing two tickets was a little much. Why waste money to give him a chair when it would feel no different stand? But Erza had insisted, and he had given up on arguing for fear of upsetting her.

He stayed close behind her as they filed into the theater, careful to make sure he remained intangible as Erza shoved her way through the crowd. This… this was a date, right? It was just the two of them, going to see a play. Since he couldn't remember any other dates Jellal decided this was his first. Screw the implications of dying dateless. He was watching a play with Erza.

And so what if she was wearing armor, and the play was about a girl having to save the bumbling knight who comically fail to save _her_? If Erza wanted to say anything to him she'd say to his face. She wouldn't give subtle hints through mixed messages. Probably.

Erza spotted their seats and stumbled past the other people already in the row to reach them. Jellal passed through behind her, and gave the one inconsiderate jerk who wouldn't move his legs out of her way even when faced with Erza's glare a swift kick in the shin.

Erza summoned up her notebook and wrote_ Have you seen this before?_

Jellal, who was still in the habit of nodding or shaking his head, then wrote a simple _No_ return. Mentioning that it was so new as to not have been performed before his death didn't seem tactful, and-

_Really? If I were in your place I'd have snuck into a dozen theaters._

Jellal laughed at this. Erza liked theater? Well, obviously, since she'd chosen to take him to see a play. That she'd like it that much was an idea Jellal had trouble fitting into his image of her, but he managed to get it in by the time the curtains rose.

The play began with the valiant knight, Sir Michael, learning that the beautiful Lady Rosamund had been captured by the hideous dragon. Natsu had gone to see the play within a day of its opening for the dragon, and complained for a week afterward about what a tremendous misrepresentation it was. I had made the play title pop out at Erza when she was trying to pick one for her and Angel-san to see, inch hoped it hadn't been a mistake not to make sure it was a good show for couples. This was supposed to be a nice gesture, after all.

Well, if nothing else, at least she could relate to the heroin. Nice sword. How would one go about getting lead part? If the play got big enough maybe she could be Rosamund in a different theater. How hard could it be to play the headstrong, sword wielding, cute female lead… in front of a few hundred people?

To Jellal's surprise, the knight traded himself in exchange for the fair maiden as opposed to simply being captured. At least it explained how Rosamund was able to try and rescue Michael, though as she had already been captured once it seemed doomed to fail. And why would the dragon trade when it had demonstrated that it could easily kill both of them? He found the play's humor to be a little dry, the story a little patchy, and the characters flat (the dragon was the only interesting one, and even he had no motive) but at least Erza was enjoying herself.

Erza took advantage of the intermission to talk to Angel-san more. For once, Jellal found himself incredibly grateful that she couldn't see him. It was much easier to pretend the play was interesting on paper than it would be with his facial expressions showing. Erza giddy grin was worth all the dull plays in the world though. Whether that was passion or just the standards, Jellal couldn't tell.

"I bet I could make a good Rosamund." Erza whispered to him, not afraid to speak softly to thin air amidst the dull murmur of people who were looking for their seats.

Most people probably would act better than the girl the director had picked, but instead of that Jellal wrote: _You'd make a prettier Rosamund as well. Their talk of her beauty would be in no way exaggerated if it were you._

Erza snorted. "Don't be cheesy."

_You're supposed to blush when somebody tells you something like that._ Even if it is cheesy.

That got her to blush! And stutter too, though possibly not from embarassment. Jellal congratulated himself on a job well done as that stupid Rosamund pranced back onto the stage to ask the crowd some falsely interactive question.

Jellal to wonder why Erza had brought the flashlight if she was too engrossed in the play to use it. By the time Michael had been freed and was rushing to slay the dragon-you know, to completely undermine all the work that Rosamund had done to create a female empowering message-the only thing stopping him from pulling the flashlight himself was the knowledge that a flashlight floating in midair would be a lot more disruptive than anything short of Erza jumping on stage in a racy outfit. That wasn't interruption he'd mind, but at this point he'd be just as happy to see the show stopped by an actor getting shot.

He dared not cause a scene himself though. That would upset Erza. Instead, he tried to use the dim light from the stage to write his message to her, then set the notebook on her lap.

_Would you _like_ to be Rosamund?_

Erza frown, gesturing to Michael, approaching the dragon and beginning his speech. But not wanting to appear rude, she wrote back: _Yes. I like acting. _

Ignoring that Erza was trying to listen to Michael talk about what a great knight he was, Jellal wrote: _have you ever performed before?_

_I got stage fright, and play turned into a battle between me, Natsu, and Gray._ The second Erza handed notebook over, she regretted it. Well, too late now. Too embarrassed for having admitted her shortcoming, Erza focused all of her attention on Michael swinging his sword around as he finished his speech, rather than on what Angel-san was writing.

She glanced down she felt the notebook fall back onto her lap. _Maybe theaters are just bad luck for you._ Angel-san had wrote.

Forgetting where she was, Erza started to say "That is _not_-" then she felt something connect with her head, leaving her too dazed to remember what she'd been saying.

Jellal leaned through his chair to inspect the prop sword that had bounced off of Erza's face, then up at the stage to the mortified actor, who was staring, petrified, at the beauty that is loose grip had harmed. Poor thing didn't know that Erza had thicker skull than that. So Michael had finally managed to amuse Jellal after all.

* * *

><p><strong>STA<strong>: Uwah! I was so busy with school that I didn't have this done by the time I was supposed to post it!

Ah, oh well. I still got it up fast, and y'all are probably too busy caring about your own lives or what Zeref is up to to care about if I'm a few hours late.


	9. Think of the Children

Well, this story is officially more popular than everything of mine but the Zelda fics and that one mpreg. I don't know why, since they tend to be my worst written works, but for some reason my mpreg tend to get more attention than my regular stories. There will be no beating the Zelda mpreg.

Also, another weird dragon error in this chapter.  
>The program wrote: they rescued a boyfriend<br>When I said: can you ask your dead boyfriend

**Yuki Kusanagi** - Mm... I supose it is important. The main reason it takes time to write though is because I'm stranded there from 7 to 5 in spite of only having several hours of classes. Once I work on the bus schedule I should be able to get home and write faster. (Well, I could just bring my laptop, but I'd be to embarassed to use the dragon software in public)

**Beta5200 **- No actors were harmed in the making of this story. Just Jellal. He's got a bit of harm to go, actually.

**Burned Down** - I'm sorry. If you want to know that one you'll have to read to the end. Don't worry. It shouldn't be more than a month wait :)

* * *

><p>"At least you didn't hurt the poor guy." Gray laughed as Erza finished her story.<p>

Erza glared in response, quickly silencing her teammate.

"Um… Erza?" Lucy wasn't sure that she wanted the redhead's attention just then, but… "Aside from the ending… what did you… how do you think your date went?"

Erza blinked in surprise and looked down, thinking about it for a moment before responding. "It was nice. As far as I know Angel-san didn't try to pull any moves on me, and he was really pleasant while we talked about play. The only problem with it was…"

"The lack of a body?" Lucy guessed.

"That, and a name." Erza admitted. "If he were alive and I knew who he was then it would have been perfect." As it was, those were two major flaws, but nobody dared point out. "I'm hoping to fix the second one, but there's no raising the…dead..." Erza trailed off, all light leaving her eyes for a moment before she quickly covered her expression with a weak smile.

"Erza?"

"The Council never responded to my letter…"

Jellal's heart clenched. How long could he play Angel-san before he had to tell her?

"Don't worry. If there's any change in his situation and will be all over the news." Lucy assured her.

"That doesn't mean I can talk to him… he-eep!" Erza jumped as Jellal prodded her in the neck, spinning to frown at the air behind her. When she turned back to find the words _Jellal wouldn't want you to be sad_ had been written on the corner of the job Lucy had offered her, some useless plan to pick magical flowers.

"You met him?" Erza asked dryly. The nerve of the-

_I was one of the children in the tower_. There. Two satisfactory responses, no identity, and no lies.

"…Simon?"

_No_.

Erza gazed back at the space for Jellal had been, then shrugged and turned back to Lucy. Angel-san would tell her his past when he told her his name.

"Whoever he is, he's awesome!" Natsu declared. "This guy isn't even alive and he killed a Selkie! I'd like to take him on." Behind Natsu, a chair rose up in the air. "Hey Erza, can you ask your dead boyfriend to fight me?" The chair smashed against Natsu's head. His eyes rolled up, and he slumped over on the ground.

Jellal tossed the ruined chair aside. That was payback for hitting him through a tower.

"Well… Anyway, I had a nice time (up until the end)"

"So you like him?"

Erza stared Lucy down with such intensity as to make the glare that she had silenced Gray with look like a come-hither look. Did the dumb blonde not realize that Angel-san was right there? Apparently she did, because after whimpering and whining for a moment, as was Lucy's habit no matter who Erza glared at, she said "um… Maybe we can talk about later at my house. I'll… um… bring a strawberry cake?"

It was hard to argue with cake. Erza nodded and got up, heading for the door, apparently having missed the 'later'.

Not that it made any difference, but Jellal waved goodbye as she went.

* * *

><p>"He's dead." Lucy waited until Erza already had a piece of cake in her mouth to say it. "You do realize that, don't you?"<p>

"He's dead? Really? I hadn't noticed." Erza said between bites, rolling her eyes. "Of _course_ I realized that. But I can still interact with him, and if he's broken his promise not to follow me outside of work he has yet to give himself away. He's saved me twice, and I know he likes me so I had to do something to return the favor."

"So that was a one-time thing?"

"Well, I did enjoy it…" And she had heard that Hargeon was getting ready for a festival.

"Okay then." Lucy said, fully understanding what Erza was getting it. "Hypothetical situation: you keep going up him. He's a real gentleman every time. You even get his name, and if he was in the tower, maybe it's somebody thought was cute." Erza hadn't paid much attention to those outside her circle of friends, and she hadn't thought of Simon or Wally as being particularly cute, but she nodded anyway. "You two decide you're in love. I hate to break it to you, but the law forbids you marry a corpse."

"We saw _one_ play." Erza defended, unable to take the offense, since she had been planning on taking Angel-san somewhere else.

"It's hypothetical. Now, say you two just decide to act like a married couple, and now you want kids."

"Adoption." Erza pointed out. That had always been part of her plan anyway. As if she was really going to grow fat for nine months, on a strict diet, with heavy limits on her physical activity. Just having to wait a month for her leg to heal was bad enough.

"Okay. You two adopt a kid. Legally, you're a single parent. Financially, you alone have to support this child. Now take a moment and imagine your childhood if one of your parents was a ghost."

* * *

><p>It was late when Erza walked back into the guild, glancing around then hurrying to Gray. Jellal followed slowly, and couldn't hear what she was whispering to him until she was almost done.<p>

"-Like we're anywhere near that point, but they were good points. I mean, if I were a mom..."

"I think you're worrying too much." Gray told her. "If you ask me, anybody who's willing to knockout Natsu is worth at least three dates, dead or not."

Unfortunately for Natsu, Juvia was within earshot of Gray at the time.

* * *

><p><strong>STA<strong>: With each chapter she appears in, my hatred of Ultear grows. First she made me hate her for what she's done. Now she's all "I'm a good lady." Why? She even got stabbed! Why can't she just die?

Ah, but about _this _chapter. By virtue of getting his hair bleached against his will, Gray has become the confidant for the relationship. Yay! Actually, this was originally two chapters, but when I was looking at my plans both of these and two later chapters were too short, so I merged both pairs. The story should now be 13 chapters long unless I decide to add more material.


	10. Peeping Tom

So I was thinking... it sure is convenient that of all those women Gildartz slept with, Cana's mom happened to be the only one he loved. That, or he's a polite liar. Either way, the mere fact that there were at least 14 women he could have had a child with has made me lose all respect for him.

**Yuki Kusanagi** - Because I have to say the story out loud. I don't like people both reading what I write _and_ knowing me. I don't show my own family what I write, even when it's normal stuff. I don't want total strangers being able to hear my story and see my face!

**Beta5200** - Don't worry. Jellal is the only death in this story, though Natsu does see some abuse.

* * *

><p>Angel-san had claimed that Erza's armor did not weigh nearly as much it's Erza herself. In addition to pointing out that Erza would be both warmer and softer, Gray found this hard to believe. Sure, she probably had a few extra pounds in the front, and muscle is pretty dense, but Erza couldn't weigh <em>that<em> much. Or maybe Angel-san just hadn't had to help carry the giant building sized suit of armor that had nearly torn a hole through his floor.

Angel-san had also told him that it was pointless to argue with Erza, no matter how much logic favored you. Gray, growing defensive, as Angel-san had only known Erza for several months whereas he had known her for years, had ignored this, and had received a bloody nose when his opinions on moving all of Erza's armor when she was still paying to rent out her dorm became too colorful.

Damn Angel-san.

It was his fault Erza had insisted on moving in with Gray anyway. Well, somewhat. Angel-san had sworn up and down that he hadn't broken his promise to only leave the guild to follow her on jobs, but Erza had maintained the suspicion that he was sneaking into her room. He just _had_ to go and admit that he found her attractive, didn't he? Why did Erza even ask? Because Lucy put the idea of wedding bells in her head?

So now Gray had wasted a whole day at his life lugging Erza's armor from the dorm room that was totally still hers to his apartment where it would take up what little free space there was, for no reason that he could think of other than that so she could have it there with her. All this, so he could be forced to confirm the whereabouts of a ghost while she showered and changed clothes. But hey, it got him out of having to visit Natsu.

"I bet she has half a dozen ghost admirers." Gray complained to the floating set of armor beside him. "Dead people have probably been watching her for years and she only just started caring because you came along."

For Jellal, no part of that idea was pleasant.

Actually, Jellal thought he might, maybe, possibly, _finally_, be starting to feel something: exhaustion. Well, probably not, but he had done nothing for the past seven hours but help transport large amounts of metal that must've inhibited Erza's movements quite a bit without ever protecting her vital points.

He decided not to comment on that. Neither fashion nor armor were his thing. Erza must have known what she was doing. Besides, if she did realize how silly it was to wear armor that only partially covered her waist, cleavage, and… that was it, then she might stop wearing armor that only partially covered her waist and cleavage.

No, wait! He was just playing guardian angel, and certainly not trying to start a relationship in spite of being dead, probably. Guardian angels shouldn't have dirty thoughts.

…

Was that a stainless steel bikini?

* * *

><p>While Erza washed up from a long day of lugging armor, and prepared for a long day of lugging it back since it turned out Gray didn't have enough room, Gray kept an eye on her new boyfriendguardian angel/dead stalker, who had been invited to come in for his help with the move. Having put Erza's glove idea into practice so as to actually confirm his whereabouts, Gray decided he was actually, somehow, _less_ bored than Angel-san. At least, he assumed Angel-san was bored. One glove was pressed in a shape indicating his head rested in that hand, the other silently tapped on kitchen table the two men sat at.

"So… you're a ghost… huh?" No response, aside from the tapping to have stopped. Was that insensitive or- "Oh, you need paper and pencil, don't you?"

Still no response, but when Gray handed him the means to communicate Angel-san wrote:_ Yes, I am a ghost. That was an impressive deduction._

"Okay, it was a dumb question. I'm sorry."

_For what?_

Awkward. "For, um, reminding you that you're dead."

_Oh, yes. It's __so__ easy to forget. Was there anything else you'd like to point out?_

"Are you normally this sarcastic, because if you are I don't know how Erza enjoyed that date."

Jellal grinned at that, and confessed_ I'm just a little sore about being accused of spying on her._

"Well, once Erza gets an idea in her head…" Gray chuckled. "Don't fret over it. She's probably just worried you might see her secret embarrassing tattoo."

_She has a tattoo?_

"I don't know. It's a_ secret_." Oh. Jellal was pretty sure he was blushing, but it wasn't like he could feel his cheeks heat up. "Anyway, aside from the armor this isn't so bad. Maybe she'll keep Juvia from standing outside my window half the night."

Juvia…? _The rain girl?_ Gray nodded._ What's wrong with her?_ Aside from standing outside somebody's window half the night, of course._ I've seen you two get along_.

"Sort of. She's fun, sometimes, but she can be a little… intense. She has a handmade doll of me, did you know that? And yesterday she put Natsu in the hospital. He'll be out in a few days but-"

Gray paused to read what Angel-san had just scribbled down. _Sounds like she's worth at least three dates._

"You heard that, huh? That comment was actually why."

_Oops._ That was priceless. Then again, Natsu had argued his arrest, which had led to a certain negligible mistake, so maybe… he hoped the pink haired demon got well soon?

"I'd rather she accuse me of spying on her in the tub then have her spy on me." Gray sighed.

_Is there something extra she can see that way?_ Gray read the message several times before looking down at his boxers, or lack of, and blushed furiously.

"I-I'll be right back." Well, there was one downside to roommates.

When Gray returned he found the message: Y_ou must pick up a lot of weird fans that way._

"Yeah. Probably." Gray sighed again. Would Juvia stop trying to get him in her pants if he kept his own on?

_Sounds like Erza's almost done._ Odd change of topic, but yes, the sound of the shower running had stopped.

"Hey… do you mind me asking? I mean, as a friend of hers it does bug me… What's your name?"

Jellal hesitated. Should he answer that? He didn't know how well Gray was at keeping secrets… but if he gave it away, well, Erza needed to know sooner or later. Taking a deep, pointless breath, he wrote his name out.

"No way."

_Really!_

"It would have been in the news." Gray argued.

_It wasn't a formal execution. They staged an accident because my trial was dragging on. Look, you can't tell her it's me, but if you don't believe me, I'm the one who started calling her 'Scarlett,' for her hair color. She didn't have a last name before that. Ask her. She never talked about me before the tower fiasco, right? The only other person who would know is Wally, he was there at the time. He whined to me a lot about how simple I made the decision to name her seem, but he gave up on the topic before we met the other three. Just ask her. She'll tell you the same thing._

"Why can't I tell her?"

The kitchen door opened and Erza came in, dressed in pink rabbit pajamas with her hair wrapped in a towel. Jellal tore the page he'd been writing on in two and balled the second half up in his hand.

If Erza noticed, then Gray spoke before she could comment on Angel-san's behavior. "Erza, we were saying how weird it is your last name is your color. Is it something that runs in your family, or did you-"

"No." Erza cut him off, her expression a mix of annoyance, pain, and the patience that could only come from repeating 'He doesn't know any better. He doesn't know any better' over and over in one's head. "I didn't really know my family. When I told Jellal I didn't have the last name he decided to call me 'Scarlett.'"

"Ah. I bet he got a lot of grief from all your other friends for that."

Erza shrugged. "Just Wally. I don't think the others knew that story."

In the ensuing silence, Erza followed Gray's gaze to a pair of white gloves.

"Angel-san, you didn't get to meet Jellal again after everything that happened in the tower, did you?" Erza asked. "You know the two of us were good friends right? I ran into him before he was arrested. Can I tell you about it?"

Gray cringed, but Jellal just got up and waved to him before following Erza out of the room.

* * *

><p><strong>STA<strong>: And Gray's take on the situation just got 12 times more awkward.

I'd like to apologize twice over to Juvia/Gray fans for this. I support the pairing, as Gray does seem to be showing _some _sort of interest in her and she's _somewhat_ toned it down a bit (except for that butt wiggling scene) but for the story to work the way I want that conversation had to take place. Also, the next chapter was going to be chocked full of Juvia antics but I just changed it after finishing this to something much less funny and ending with a much more (hopefully) heart breaking scene. Which was weird for me, since I've had all the same general scenes planned out since chapter 3.

But enough on that. Please review!


	11. Back to Work

Sorry I took so long. I discovered a week before everything was due that all my important due dates were in the same week. I spent the whole time doing 5 online quizzes, on online exam, finding the minimum info needed for a speech outline, writing a micro essay for my Coms class, and finishing a large essay for English. This in addition to the weekly write-ups for Bio and my math homework/mid term. Math is easy though. I got a 5 on the AP test, but I decided to take Calc 1 again anyway just so I'd have a better grasp of it. Still, after all that, if nothing else, I'm going to get better about spreading those online quizzes out.

**ScarletKnightmare **- Ah! A lot of reviews at once! Okay, here I go... **1**: Yeah, actually, the summary gives one a pretty good idea of what comes in this chapter. **2**: I know! Could you imagine just sitting in a court room that long? **3**: Actually... I sort of... kinda... maybe... disagree. Just a little. **4**: Ah... I never try to make it _look_ like Gray/Erza. I mean, I guess I'm happy it looks like that but... **5**: Ahaha. Yeah, I tried to make her seem fun. I usually find her sort of boring in the manga. **6**: Thanks. It's probably the most effort I've ever put into an action scene before. **7**: Yes! No one else commented on that joke. **8**: It was deffinitly not a date. It was just to people who maybe liked each other going out for a nice evening event. Just the two of them. Not on a date. **9**: Eh... more on this one at the end of the chapter. **10** (finally): It was funny, it's just now I won't be able to take him seriously anymore. It's be like if Jellal turned out to have Loke's womanizer habits. It just clashed too much with his role, imo.

**Yuki Kusanagi** - Don't worry about it. I like Gray. He's not my favorite by a long shot, but his mix of emotion and rationality makes him really easy to work with. He seemed like a good person for this role... actually, his personality makes it easy for me to pair him with anyone too. I've pretty much drawn up ideas shipping him with everyone _but_ Juvia.

**Beta5200** - I didn't make that one up. She wears that bikini in an omake. And actually, Natsu's a pretty peripheral character in this fic. I didn't have any good roles for him. If he turns up again, I'm sorry to say it'll likely be in mention.

* * *

><p>Forced closure wasn't working. Stupid Loke. Lucy sat down and resigned herself to a headache inducing argument over 'us.'<p>

"There's no reason not to." Loke was saying. "Erza's dating a spirit, and that one isn't even alive."

"I'm _against_ that relationship." Lucy reminded him. "In fact, the only reason I haven't tracked that ghost down and told him to let her be with the living is-"

Lucy never finished that sentence, but Loke imagined that the ending would've gone something along the lines of 'because Erza would kill me,' since Lucy stopped talking when she spotted Erza walking up to them.

"I'm finally back to working." Erza announced, taking a seat between Lucy and Loke. "Master approved of the job I'm taking. I'm leaving in a few minutes."

"Without us?"

Erza winced and forced an apologetic smile. "The job specifically says it's to be done solo. I'm sorry Lucy. The Council requested me special for it, and given our relations with them I don't think it's a good idea to turn them down." More like given that they controlled if she saw Jellal, but Lucy didn't mention that.

"It would also be a good idea not to break anything while you're working. How long is it supposed to be?"

Erza shrugged. "About a week. I don't know many of the details though. I'm supposed to get the full assignment in Era."

"Well, that should be enough time for Juvia to calm down after Gray tells her you two are living together." Lucy joked. "Good luck."

"Thanks. We'll have to find work together when I get back." Erza waved as she left.

"Juvia did realize…" Lucy yelped, having not notice the rain woman sneak up behind her. "She was so busy keeping on threat in check, someone else has snuck up to steal Gray."

* * *

><p>"Angel-san?" Erza whispered once the train had started. She felt a light pressure on her arm. "Hey. I'm glad you came. I can act more confidently if I don't have to worry so much about what will happen if I mess up. I… I'm sort of hoping they'll let me see Jellal again."<p>

Though touched, Jellal had been afraid of that.

"I… I like him." Erza confessed. "I tried to tell him once, but I was interrupted." What? When? "Actually, he told me once but… given the situation… I think he was just trying to hurt me by saying so." Never! "Um… Angel-san, you're squeezing my arm really tightly."

Oops. Jellal released her arm, opting to rest his head on her shoulder instead. Her armor would probably have been too cold and stiff for this if he could actually feel it.

Erza felt the slight shift on her armor, and reached up hesitantly to try and feel her Guardian Angel's face. Not a bad head shape, there was a nose, possibly hair. Jellal endured her hands on his face and torso, but as she moved further down he hastily made said lower half intangible. His legs slipped through the train seat, leaving him in an awkward spot. Thank God Erza was too busy wondering where his lower half went to notice where his head was. Slowly, carefully, he extracted his face between her legs and pulled himself back up.

He could almost feel himself blushing.

* * *

><p>The meeting was in an unusual place. In the underbelly of the city. The sort of place Jellal would remember sneaking to with Ultear to watch rowdy mages like the ones in Fairy Tail go nuts taking out criminals with no restraint, where he able to recall such events.<p>

"I'm probably going to be working here." Erza sighed. "I have to not wear makeup on this job. People might decide I'm a hooker."

"That's the point."

Erza spun to see one of the Council's endless supply of toads come out from an alley.

"What?"

"The locals have reported a prostitution ring in the area. We'd like to send one of our own men to find it, but we do need to deal with rumors about the Rune Knights' behavior. Fairy Tail already has quite a reputation, and a girl with your looks to get a job easy. You probably won't feel out of place at all, given you so closely associate yourself with such vile scum." The toad pulled the letter Erza had sent requesting to see Jellal from under his coat and waved it in her face.

"You want me to… sell myself?" Erza was too stunned, so Jellal clenched his fist in rage for her.

"Is that a problem?"

"Yes!"

"If we can't trust you with a job, we certainly can't trust you with the criminal."

Erza opened her mouth to protest, but no sound came out. They wouldn't let her see Jellal unless she went undercover as a prostitute?

"Of course, if word it gets out, saying you were spying for us can only undo so much of the damage that it will do to your reputation _Titania_."

They didn't care. They probably already knew who all was involved. This is just a chance to drag her name-Fairy Tail's name-through the mud, and Jellal was the bait.

Jellal…

"…Alright."

The toad grinned. "Excellent. Let's get you all dressed up."

* * *

><p>Erza had picked a lousy time not to bring a writing utensil. After searching the dressing room and coming up with nothing other than writing on the wall with lipstick, which Erza had forbidden, Jellal was trying to trace his words out, letter by letter, on Erza's hand.<p>

"…P…I…D…" Erza repeated slowly. "It's stupid. I know. But I can't leave Jellal alone! I promised him I'd visit _months_ ago."

Jellal almost wasted time arguing that two months wasn't long, but just a week had felt like eternity in that cell, and he had been looking forward to that visit. Besides, he had to dissuade her before that ugly wart came back.

"J…E…L…L…A…L, Jellal, W…O…U…L…D…N…T... wouldn't?" He gave her an affirmative pat on the hand, and went on "…want…u…2…give…up..…oh." she flushed. "Well… I suppose… Yes, I do care. I've never… before… but he… that is… he doesn't need to know what I'm doing."

Jellal started to write his threat, but gave up after two letters and grabbed the lipstick. Erza, also growing tired of the slow communication, let it slide.

_I will make sure Jellal knows if you do this._

_You don't even know they'll let you see him._

_Don't take the job._

"I can handle this." Erza hissed.

Growling in frustration, Jellal sprung at Erza and pinned her to the floor. One hand held her arm up while the other held her mouth shut to stifle her scream as he crawled on top of her. Ignoring her alarmed protests, he began to peel off the thin, racy top the toad had given her.

Erza was about to try screaming again when the motion stopped, her captured arm was released, and the pressure on her chest tightened as a similar sensation appeared on her cheek, tracing out the words: _can you?_

* * *

><p>"It's a shame, but perhaps we'll get more work for you in the future."<p>

"Yes…"

"Just don't count on it." The toad smirked as the train doors shut. Erza watched him from the window until the station was no longer in view, then found the nearest seat.

Jellal sat next to her and poked her arm.

"Hey… Angel…" Erza muttered. "I'm not mad… I promise."

So why wouldn't she look up? Jellal poked her again-it was his only current form of communication. At least while she was too distracted for tracing.

"Please don't." Erza whispered. "I just… give me a moment."

No. Another poke.

"Stop that." Erza hissed, turning to glare at Jellal and, for once, getting his location right. For all the effort she was putting into looking furious, she couldn't hide that she was crying.

Jellal stopped poking her, and she slumped back down. "I _really_ wanted to see him." Erza choked on a sob, and waited a moment before adding "This isn't fair. I've been nothing but sensitive to the Council ever since his arrest, and all reports that he's been a model prisoner. They… I…"

Jellal patted her shoulder, but now that she was back in her armor he doubted she could feel it.

"…thanks…" Erza took a deep breath and spoke in a firmer tone. "I feel worse for Jellal. He's going to be alone because a chickened out of this. I don't think they've even been letting him read my letters, because he stopped responding."

Jellal took Erza's hand and began to trace.

"I… can….. really? ..…Oh, yeah." She giggled. "I guess he can go through walls, can't you, Angel-san? You can really sneak letters back and forth for me?"

Why not? How hard could forging his own handwriting be?

* * *

><p><strong>STA<strong>: My wasting precious time reading smutty Vocaloid slash rather than working on this or school work may have effected the chapter a teensy bit. But about that chapter... I mean... holy _crap_ that was a big time skip. I'd rather Makarov die then have the character _that_ much older. Oh... and poor Jellal probably spent that whole time in prison too.

Becasue I finally remembered why, I figured I'd talk a little about the origin of this story. Basically, my iPod was playing possum on me, so I was using my old CD player, and I had Taylor Swift in, and the song _Haunted_ came on. I started imagining it as one of those movie promos, for a film where a girl gets into a relationship with a ghost. The idea was that the girl loved him like Bella, while he would be rational about how he was dead and she'd be happier with a live guy, and eventully she'd become so obsesed that she tried to remedy that little barrier the traditional way, so he let it go and decided that even if it was a strange life, at least he'd make sure she lived, so he stayed with her. Weird, huh? Well, that's not the plot of this fic. I didn't have the time to work out a whole story, so I did the reverse of my normal method, I turned my original story into a fanfic, and adapted it acordingly, this time with the ghost and the girl being for the realtionship, but the ghost moreso, and the friends beinging aware of, and in some cases vocal about their dating.

Also I got hooked on this anime with a really redundant title. "The Legend of the Legendary Heroes" Actually, I started watching it just cuzz the title made me laugh. On a scale of 1 to Code Geass, I give it a 7.


	12. Picking Sides

**inoyamakiori **- Crap. You sent that review while I was in the middle of watching an anime about kids with devil eyes...

**BibiZero** - Aaah! Don't read Lost Magic. That's like, a decade old! I feel so stupid whenever I got back and look at it! (takes a moment to calm down) ...Arg, I really hate it when people point stuff out like that, but I can't complain in case I really did miss it. Don't worry about the handwriting. There are plans for it.

**Yuki Kusanagi** - Yes, the council are the real villains. My secret belief is that _there_ evil summoned Acnologia.

**ScarletKnightmare** - I was really hoping that maybe Ultear would continue her confessing and tell the council about how she screwed him over, and maybe he'd have been released and joined the guild in the time skip, but no luck.

* * *

><p>After being hounded by Juvia nonstop for the past week Gray was relieved to see Lucy dare approach him… until she spoke.<p>

"Since you're living with both of them, you should have the easiest time breaking them up." She glanced around the room for crazed rain women are potentially upsettable redheads before sitting down. "Angel-san isn't listening, is he?"

"No." Gray assured her. "He and Erza left for the beach this morning."

"The-! Gray! Why did you let them?"

"I'm not their dad." That would be really creepy. "Besides, Erza's been down all week. I couldn't tell her no after nagging her about getting out-especially since I _don't_ object to their relationship."

"She doesn't even know his name!"

* * *

><p>"Put these on."<p>

Jellal stared at the swim trunks. Ignoring the rubber duck pattern, he just had to forget to be solid for a moment to end up nude. No one would notice, sure, and he was getting really sick of the clothes that he died in, but still. He could just write 'no.' The sand was a great canvas, but…

Erza's eyes lit up as her guardian angel took the clothing she'd selected purely to be ridiculous. "Great. I think you look real cute in-h-hey! Don't bury those!"

Jellal laughed as she smacked his hand away and rescued the ridiculous shorts, only to shrug and toss them in the trash.

_I don't see what's so cute about a pair of floating pants._ Jellal wrote.

"Yeah…" Erza sighed. It still would have been nice if he could have indulged her. "Come on, then. Let's see how well water sticks to you."

* * *

><p>"<em>I<em> know his name." Gray snapped. "And I trust him." Why? Well, Erza had the last time they met. Of course, she'd also trusted him before that whole tower incident…

"He can tell you, but not her?" Lucy demanded.

"He has a good reason." Probably. Jellal had never given it, but Gray suspected it had something to do with how poorly Erza handled not been able to see him in prison.

Burying her head in her hands, Lucy sighed and said "It doesn't matter. If you say he's good, then he's good. Fine. But he still dead. I like a good romance as much as the next person, and I can see the idea of love after death being nice, but that's only in stories. This is real life. It won't work."

"Why not?"

* * *

><p>Erza doubled over in laughter. The site of Angel-san drenched with water was too absurd. Drips slid down thin air as if they were really on glass, and layers of water clung to his (presumably) hair and pants. It seemed he was not wearing a shirt.<p>

"Lie down." She ordered. The water obeyed. "Now stay solid."

Angel-san didn't move as she sprinkled sand on top of him, getting a rough idea of his appearance. Not bad. Oddly familiar, but she probably met him at least once before he died. He had been in the tower, and she must've done something for him in life to make and so dedicated after death.

"Okay, what colors your hair?" She asked, eager for an even better image.

The wet-sand phantom rolled over and wrote _Why?_ in the sand.

"Because I want to know what you look like, stupid. Now what color is it?"

_Translucent_.

* * *

><p>"Because he's <em>dead<em>, that's why not! Just because he can talk to her and protect her from physical harm doesn't mean he can _always_ be there for her."

"Erza _likes_ him!" Gray didn't realize he was yelling. "Why can't you think of her happiness? You're too busy focusing on the negative to give him a chance!"

Noticing the attention Gray's accusation have gotten from the rest of the guild, Lucy lowered her voice. "I am thinking of her happiness. She'll be better off if this is stopped before she gets too attached to Angel-san. It can't work. He can't marry her, he can't support her, he can't give her a kid, and even if she has a child anyway he can't raise them."

"Yes he could." Lucy didn't bother to ask which point Gray was arguing, though she hoped it wasn't the third.

"Gray, for Erza sake, stop this. It's for Angel-san too. He's dead. He needs to face that fact."

This was getting to be too much. Without another word, Gray got up and left.

* * *

><p>"Say 'say ah!'"<p>

Jellal gave Erza a playful shove, but took the ice cream she'd offered up anyway and held it out for her.

The ice cream, intended to cool off his own angel, was a bit redundant since they'd had to find a hidden, shady spot where the two could interact without attracting onlookers. Jellal had already proven his existence to over a dozen people who were worried for Erza sanity.

He didn't say it, but when he lifted the strawberry ice cream and Erza's lips she said "Aaaah" nonetheless.

Jellal had preferred spicy foods to sweets, but even if he had been a fan of ice cream he wouldn't have been caught dead eating something so pink… or so he thought. It was extremely tempting to lick that little bit off her cheek.

* * *

><p>It was evening by the time Lucy found the courage to go to Gray's house. This had less to do with her ticking him off earlier and more to do with a certain self-appointed aquatic guard.<p>

Perhaps she should have worried about Gray too. The only reason he didn't shut the door in her face was because she slipped inside too fast.

"No."

"Erza needs a live boyfriend." Lucy said. "Please, Gray, this is for the best. No matter how great of a guy Angel-san is, he's dead. Erza would be better off with you, or Jellal, or even Loke." Lucy seemed not to notice Gray cringe at her words.

* * *

><p><em>If we stay much later, will miss the last train<em>. Jellal had to drag Erza back and force her to read it.

"Don't worry, they run at night too, just not as often." Erza grabbed the arm Angel-san held her with and dragged _him_ the rest of the way up the dune.

"This seems like the perfect romantic end to a date." Because this time it was definitely a date.

Jellal was grateful for his inability to communicate verbally with her. His sarcastic comment, which would have been written after inspecting the view rather than stated right away, flew from his mind as he caught sight of the sunset.

He followed Erza's example and sat in the sand, tracing his fingers through it to make an image of her as she spoke.

"Now might not be the best time, but I finally wrote a letter I like."

_Okay. I can go to deliver it as soon as we get home. It'll be express delivery. If you're lucky, I'll get a response to you before you go to bed tomorrow._ That would be plenty enough time to come up with a response.

"Thanks, Angel-san. You're, well, an angel."

Jellal glanced over at her. Was she…?

* * *

><p>"Somebody like Jellal or me?" Gray repeated. Lucy nodded. "I think a relationship with this ghost is much healthier than her obsession with Jellal. Did Angel-san tell you what she almost did to try and see him last week?"<p>

He hadn't, and Gray had to tell Lucy the story instead.

She didn't believe it. "Erza just has more common sense than that. Angel-san's drawn you over to his side, hasn't he? I read that most poltergeists are convicts, I was worried he might not be completely straight." Gray tried to interrupt and say that Erza had confirmed the story, but Lucy would not let him. "He's probably upset with the amount of attention Erza gives Jellal. Gray, please, separate them."

How?

"You know what, fine, I'll encourage Erza to be with Jellal." Gray threw up his hands in surrender. "If you don't get out of here, I'll kiss you."

"How is that a threat? Because I-" Lucy froze. That was some pretty heavy breathing on the back of her neck. "Hi Juvia. Um, maybe you and Levy could spend the night at my place? You know, a slumber party, girls only."

"Lucy thinks she can win Gray over his Juvia is distracted by Levy, is that the idea?"

* * *

><p>"It really is a lovely sunset." Erza leaned in. "It would be a shame to waste it."<p>

It would be. That she couldn't mean… that is... didn't she still want his name? If she really did it he'd feel like her had to. Could he give her his real name? Could he give her a fake name? Neither seemed like that great of an idea to him.

"Come on. We came all the way out here. I'll have to work after this. Who knows I'm a be able to come here again, and it may not be as nice." Erza urged.

Well, for the average person it might not be too hard to argue with that, but to Jellal's knowledge he never really been average.

He leaned over and kissed.

* * *

><p><strong>STA<strong>: Hey-a! Update, sorry it's a little choppy. I was experimenting here. Not many chapters left now, hopefully like there aren't many chapters left before we find out what happened to everyone on the island (and Jellal).

It's a bit of an idea recycle, but I think after this I'm gonna do a shorter fic with something similar going on with Gray. It's been over a year since I did a story with him, and I had a spare idea left over form all the possible directions this story could have gone.

On an unrelated note _**SPOILER**_: Erza learns Angel-san's identity in the next chapter.


	13. Only Sometimes

**Do not kill the author**

**BibiZero** - That's a relief. It looked so choppy when I wrote it. But um... sorry if this one disappoints.

**fairytail101** - Eh... heh... urf.

**Yuki Kusanagi - **Probably not but I still don't like them. Don't be mad at Lucy. She just wants what's best.

**Beta5200** - ... How the heck am I supposed to respond to _that_?

* * *

><p><em>Dear Jellal<em>

_I'm so sorry that I wasn't able to visit you. The council recently upped your security, but if anybody would already know that it would be you. I'll have to see when your trial starts back up. I'm not allowed to testify, but I can still support you._

_They really are strict though. They stopped letting you received letters, didn't they? Angel-san agreed to deliver this for me. I included some paper, so you can write a response for him to bring back. He's a poltergeist that's been helping me recently. He won't give me his name, but his real sweet. Maybe he can keep you company, if you get lonely. He says he was from the tower too, but I don't think he has anything against you. He offered to do this._

_I'm living with Gray right now. You never really met him, so you don't have to try and remember who he is. It was really just a precaution in case Angel-san was a pervert (he's not) but it got a girl who likes Gray really jealous. Usually her crush is kind of cute, but she actually hospitalized Natsu the other day to try and impress him. He's all right. She only bruised his pride, and one crazy job is all it will take for him to recover from that._

_I had a really rotten job last week. The council tried to hire me to go undercover to expose a prostitution ring-as a prostitute! Can you believe that? They don't give you that sort of crap, do they? Probably not. I heard you're a model prisoner. If nothing else they must not give you extra grief._

_I'm really looking forward to hearing from you again, Jellal._

_Love  
>Erza Scarlett<em>

Jellal sighed. Odd as it sounded, Erza was never so excited to hear from _him_. Competing with one's self was awkward.

Well, that letter did come with paper, but no pen. He'd have to hunt them down before he could write a response.

* * *

><p>"First kiss?"<p>

Erza flushed. She knew Angel-san and Gray talked a lot without her, but it hadn't occurred to her that they might be talking _about_ her. Up until now it had been her job to give people the details of their dates. Er… no, only the last one had definitely been a date.

"Yeah."

"You sound excited." Gray almost took a seat on the couch next to Erza, but even if she had conceded that he had a right to be pantsless in his own home, she may not appreciate him sitting next to her wearing only boxer's. "What went wrong?"

"Nothing… He didn't eat any ice cream. It wasn't romantic." Erza shrugged. She was almost as bad a liar as she was an actor.

Gray played along. "What did you expect?"

"… A spark." Erza murmured.

"A…" Gray blinked in surprise. "Do you mean… the kiss was bad?"

Erza nodded

"It couldn't have been-"

Erza interrupted Gray with a giggle. "It's nothing. It's probably just that I always entertain the fantasy about Jellal being my first kiss. I must've played with the idea so much in my mind that reality couldn't compete with it."

Gray it is best not to cringe, and succeeded, if only barely. "So there wasn't really anything wrong with it."

"Well, I guess there was. Have you ever touched Angel-san?" Gray nodded. "It doesn't really feel like anything, other than this weird pressure on your skin. I was kissing him, and he was kissing back, but it mostly just felt like that pressure on my tongue."

"That's what you get for dating a ghost." Gray had meant it as a joke, but Lucy's words came rushing back to him. This time he couldn't stop himself from cringing.

Erza, who had completely blocked out memory of her conversation with Lucy, just laughed and said "How about you help me test that?"

* * *

><p>There. That looked like a nice response. He showed interest in what Erza had mentioned without giving away any information that he shouldn't know, he confirmed her suspicions that the council had prevented him from responding to her letters, and even made up an interesting story about a mishap with one of the prisoners. It was worded perfectly as a result of being a second draft. He'd written the first one only to realize that he would have to forge somebody's handwriting other than his own.<p>

Would Erza suspect something if he gave it to her early? Well, he was still looking for an excuse to force himself to tell her. Why not?

The walk back from Lucy's, the place where he felt most justified stealing a pen from, took a little time, but still not enough to make it believable that he really gone to Era and back. Oh well.

Gray's door was locked, so Jellal had to slip the letter underneath and walk through. When he stood up after retrieving the letter he promptly dropped it again, gaping at the sight of Erza and Gray kissing.

There had to be an explanation. Gray holding her in only boxers was one thing. He did that with everyone. But kissing on top of it? She couldn't be… He couldn't be… "Mm… Yeah." Erza pulled away "Kissing a live boy definitely felt better. That's too bad."

"So you're in for a lifetime of bad kisses. There's more to a relationship than that." Gray shrugged.

Jellal sighed in relief. Except…

He looked back down at the letter. So she thought he was a bad kisser? That would probably be forgotten if they ever got as far as bed. Maybe he shouldn't have stolen Lucy's pen after all.

Maybe he should've been a little nicer to Simon

He'd been so determined to prove them wrong. He knew he truly loved her, and that sometimes love was strong enough to cross the boundary of life and death.

Just... only sometimes.

Unnoticed by Erza and Gray, he slipped past them into the dining room and found another piece of paper and envelope. No longer careful with his handwriting, he focused on not being obvious as he snuck past them again to go to Erza's room, again walking to the door after slipping the letter under it.

No longer distracted by physical intimacy with a mostly naked man, Erza heard the sound of paper sliding against wood and looked over at her door.

Jellal set the letter down on her pillow, enclosed in an envelope with the location of his grave, just in time to hear the door click behind him. He spun to see Erza's face one last time as he vanished into the light.

* * *

><p>Erza stood there, staring blankly for several long minutes at the spot where she could have sworn she saw Jellal, even if it had only been for a split second, then shook herself from her trance. Of course he hadn't been there. She was just getting eager about-the letter! Angel-san had gotten the letter for her.<p>

She stared at the directions on the back for a moment, written in Angel-san's handwriting, then tore the envelope open and read:

_Erza, I'm sorry for having misled you._

_It would mean a lot if you came to visit me_

-_Jellal Fernandes_

What the heck? This was Angel-san's handwriting too! Misled you… but it was signed Jellal. Maybe… maybe Jellal hadn't been able to write himself, and Angel-san was apologizing for that. He must have just written the gist of what Jellal had said.

Visit… Oh! The directions must have been to his new cell. No _wonder_ she couldn't contact him from Era.

"Gray!" Erza called.

"Yeah?" Gray's voice drifted from down the hall.

"You have the house to yourself tonight. I have somewhere to go."

"It's awfully late."

"I'll be careful," Erza promised "but this can't wait until morning. I've been waiting to see him for months."

* * *

><p>"Oh, Erza, you're back. Gray was worried, he said you were gone all night and… hey, are you okay?"<p>

"You were right, Mira."

"I was… about what?"

"Poltergeists are usually convicts."

"Uh-oh. Did something happen with Angel-san?"

"Yeah. They spelled his name wrong. On his grave marker."

* * *

><p><strong>STA<strong>: Yeah... so... I wrote this story because an idea for a ghost romance randomly popped into my head and I was like "that would be cute if I actually wrote plain old romance (instead of that mpreg laced stuff)... oh... except for all these flaws with dating a dead guy. Hey, it would be kind of fun to write a story about ghost romance that fails at the end when they realize that! You know, I haven't done anything cruel to Jellal lately. I'll let the story focus on him." But then everyone was like "oh this is so cute" and I was like "Ah! I'm gonna be flamed if I finish this!

Yeah. Also, sorry this chapter took so long. I spent all last week putting together my plans for my next FT fic, then I had an online exam last saturday and I hadn't read any of the chapters it was on so that ate up my whole day, and sunday was spent letting my brain cool down, and then I just got stuck on how to make this play out after the letter reading scene.

Also, Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaah! Now there's a seven year age gap between Jellal and Erza! They already have enough barriers! They already have enough!


End file.
